The Liberal Democrats hailed yesterday’s Aberdeenshire by-election result a success for their party and said they are still “front-runners” in many communities in the ward.
Aberdeenshire Council’s Lib Dem group leader Karen Clark said the party had still strengthened in the region – grabbing 23% of votes compared to 18% at the 2012 council election.
The Lib Dem nominee for the Huntly, Strathbogie and the Howe of Alford ward was Daniel Millican – who garnered 928 of 4,097 votes.
The party suffered a massive blow in the UK general election in May and was left with only one MP in the country – Alistair Carmichael.
The Aberdeenshire Lib Dems had been hoping to hold onto a seat in the ward after councillor Alastair Ross stepped down due to health concerns.
However Mrs Clark added the party now had an “excellent platform to build on” in Aberdeenshire going into the 2016 Scottish Parliament elections and the 2017 local council elections.
She said: “In some of the villages in Alford we are front-runners out there. There is maybe a wee bit of extra work to do in Huntly to win the voters out there but we’ve had very positive reactions on the doorsteps and we look forward to having Dan back in 2017.”
Former MSP for Aberdeenshire West, Mike Rumbles – who will stand for the Aberdeenshire West seat he held for 12 years until 2011 at next year’s elections – said: “Obviously we’d have liked to have had Dan elected but we are delighted our vote has gone up. So it is a boost for the Liberal Democrat vote across the council area.
“Increasing the Liberal Democrat vote is what it is all about and we are very pleased we have done it.”